Here is another post of links I’ve found interesting over the past couple of weeks and a bit of general news. First, Neth Space is moving – at least the physical address is. Later this month I’ll be leaving the heat of Phoenix for the cool mountain air of Flagstaff – I can’t wait! So, my mailing address is changing – I’ve contacted most of those who send me books and such through email, but if this is news to you, send me an email (use the link in the sidebar – it’s pretty much spam-proof). Speaking of email, that may have to change too since I’ll be switching providers, but again, contact me and I can get you another email address that won’t be changing.
In another bit of news, Neth Space passed the 50,000 visits according to Site Meter – sure this is small potatoes for many of you out there, but to me, it’s something of milestone. Of course I don’t trust Site Meter all that much since I know it misses some visits and doesn’t account for RSS feeds, but it is a number I can point to. Thanks to all you new and repeat visitors – it does an ego good ;).
So, on to the links…
- I’m getting tired of all the posts about how to write reviews. Thankfully I’ve chosen to ignore most of them, but it seems Larry gets around.
- Another new interview with Scott Bakker – I’m more and more excited to read Neuropath. Hopefully my copy will arrive soon and Scott will get back to me with his Questions Five.
- Tobias Buckell takes a look at how Tor’s free e-book program has influenced his sales.
- John Scalzi lets fans know how to approach him – hint, it’s not from behind in the conservatory with a candlestick.
- Good things happen on (rare) occasion in the Arizona legislature.
- Landslide closes a major highway in Arizona – don’t get me started on the many ways ADOT screwed this one up.
- I wrote a negative pseudo-review and got a lot of attention out of it – see how civil discussion quickly turns into a blatant example for why authors shouldn’t respond to reviews. I gave up on the discussion because it got to the point that the things I want to say about it don’t forward the discussion (yes, this is political-speak and something of a gross understatement).
- I spent April Fool’s Day working in Bagdad – no, the other Bagdad.
10 comments:
Wow; I've taken highway 87 many times. We'd head up to the Rim at least twice a year.
Congrats on the move to Flagstaff. That would be a great place to live! Get used to some occasional snow.
Congrats for the passing of the milestone of 50000 visitors.
Well, as for me "getting around," it's rather ironic considering that this past month I've been less active in relation to the previous few months in numbers of posts/comments on my blog and elsewhere. I think my musings were akin to tripping a mine line - others who read not just my blog but many others wanted to respond to all of those.
I guess it won't interest you that after all of that writing (which was really just my way of trying to get myself reading to write that third Abercrombie review), tomorrow I'll be submitted at long-last that review of LAoK to SH.
As for that long bit, yeah, I could see where you'd get frustrated after a while with the course of that discussion. I still need to write an email to the publisher asking for that review copy, since it's been a long while and I haven't really responded to anyone's emails the past week or so.
And congrats on passing 50K. I should be doing so late this month or early next, so you do have that on me. Have you found another counter that's better than Sitemeter yet? If so, let me know, so I can supplement that data-gathering.
Finally, enjoy the mountain coolness!
Ahahaha oh man. You can bet I'll be avoiding that book. The review's not even the reason; the author's psychopants response has scared me off giving her work a try. It's been my experience (based on crit groups, granted, but isn't that what this is? Just on a bigger stage) that someone that defensive is not writing work capable of standing on its own merits.
(And yes, this is an anonymous comment because I'm afraid of crazed stalker authors.)
-Tia, ADOT really screwed up the desing on 87 in that area - since I'm in the industry, I hear stories. As someone who works to prevent those sort of things it's both very cool to see and sad it wasn't properly designed. I'm really looking forward to the cool air of Flagstaff and taking up skiing again if global warming doesn't totally dry up the snow.
-dark wolf, thanks
-Larry, I figured it was something like that - and since everyone mentioned you, I imagine you felt almost obligated to reply (I probably would have). I really didn't follow the discussion since it's so repetitive of what gets said a lot - I'm on record multiple times for my stance and much of the discussion doesn't really apply to me anyway.
I'm looking forward to that review, though I still need to get around to reading that book myself.
As for stat counters, I'm not willing to pay, so there's not much that's really all that great. Stat Counter is better than Site Meter IMO, and Google Analytics is pretty cool as well.
-Paranoid Anonymous ;) It's rare for authors to react that way, so it caught me off guard. I'd call it an anomaly - though for many POD and Vanity Press authors, that's a pretty common reaction (though I'm not implying either of those to that review).
Well, I've seen that sort of reaction before from quite a few established authors, so I wouldn't be quick to attribute it to a PoD/vanity author-like compulsion. Doesn't mean that authors should be reacting so often to negative reviews. It'd be like me reacting to every negative comment about me that I overhear students stay.
As for the reviews bit, well, it was what it was. At least I haven't (yet) been called a blithering idiot! :P Quite a respectful, thoughtful discussion/defense that took place. And since the blogosphere is so wide, what seems old hat for a few is going to be fertile new grounds for others and I think that might have been the case, especially since it seems that my "name" has been interjected only recently into certain quarters - might as well figure out what the "new guy" is about, right? :P
As for the counters, I went ahead and installed both the Site Counter and Google Analytics to supplement the Site Meter one. Shall be interesting to see if there are any major discrepancies, as I get this sense that I'm getting even more traffic than the 400-500 page views/day that I've been drawing recently.
Now to watch some ball games and sit down in a couple of hours to finish slaying that Abercrombie review beast.
Congrats on your move, I hope it all goes well and that you enjoy the start of a new adventure. Although I don't enjoy the nuts and bolts of moving, it is exciting to find all the new places to visit, hang out, etc.
Congrats for that milestone, Ken!
And yes, sitemeter sucks. It supposedly misses nearly 30% of the "true" traffic...
I never really looked at my overall hits. I tend to look at everday traffic to see if it's increasing.
So imagine my surprise when I noticed my main blog has had over a million hits.
I'm a little boggled actually.
-wow, with those kind of numbers I think you should find a way to get paid for blogging.
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